text:
Q: Script for Generate Databases in Powershell The Script below generated my databases
foreach ($dir in (Get-ChildItem -Directory -Path 'C:\Year_2015')) {
  Clear-Host;
  Push-Location $dir.FullName;
  C:\Teste\Teste2\file.bat $dir.FullName;
  Pop-Location;
  Clear-Host
}

By Duncan.
The code of file.bat:
@echo off
SET OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\PROGRA~1\QGISVA~1
SET PYTHONPATH=C:\PROGRA~1\QGISVA~1\apps\qgis\python;
call "%OSGEO4W_ROOT%"\bin\o4w_env.bat
rem call "%OSGEO4W_ROOT%"\apps\grass\grass-6.4.3\etc\env.bat
path %PATH%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\qgis\bin;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\grass\grass-6.4.3\lib;
rem #---[Dispara Carga_DB.py]
call python C:\\Teste\\Test2\\Pypgr\\Carga_db.py
PAUSE

The script generated databases. I would like to know the following: The script generates the database in the following folders:
C:\Year_2015\folder_1\Data\a.db
c:\Year_2015\folder_2\Data\b.db
c:\Year_2015\folder_3\Data\c.db

etc .... Let's assume that I sent generate these first three banks. Tomorrow, I go back to work and need to generate banks:
c:\Year_2015\folder_4\Data\d.db
c:\Year_2015\folder_5\Data\e.db

However, when you run the script to generate that two new banks, he is doing a reading in every other again, or trying to generate those already generated! How do I make the script run just to generate the new banks?

A: This will filter out any folders that have a *.db file in them somewhere.  Without more knowledge of the logic of your Python script, it's not really possible to be more accurate.
Get-ChildItem -Directory -Path 'C:\Year_2015' | Where-Object {
    (Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse -Path $_.FullName -Filter '*.db').Count -eq 0
} | ForEach-Object {
    Clear-Host;
    Push-Location $_.FullName;
    C:\Teste\Teste2\file.bat $_.FullName;
    Pop-Location;
    Clear-Host;
}


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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2005/03/30/haswell-settles-into-starting-role/)
Haswell Settles Into Starting Role
By | March 30, 2005
In 2003, Nate Haswell '03 recorded two goals and six assists for the men's lacrosse team, playing in 12 of the Red's 13 games. Haswell, who walked onto the team his freshman year, capped his career with a goal and assist against Hobart on Senior Day wearing a No. 6 Cornell jersey.
That same day, a freshman walk-on — who played in just one game for the Red in 2003 — roamed Cornell's sideline wearing No. 41. That player was Nate's brother, Derek, who, after two seasons of serving as a role player, has emerged as one of the team's consistent scoring threats this season.
"Derek's one of those guys who bought into the system of Cornell lacrosse," said head coach Jeff Tambroni.
Haswell bought into the system because he respects those in the program that have come before him — including his brother, and also his grandfather, Peter Haswell '54, who lettered in lacrosse in the 1951 and 1952 seasons. Haswell even switched jerseys last season so that he could wear the same No. 6 jersey that Nate wore during his time at Cornell.
"Being able to watch my brother play when he was a senior was just awesome," Haswell said.
Despite the fact that he played sparingly in his first two seasons, Haswell has come on strong this season, filling the role of the third starting attacker that was a question mark at the beginning of this year's campaign.
"I played attack when I was in high school," Haswell said. "So when coach [Tambroni] realized I had played there, he made the switch."
Tambroni did not know what to expect out of Haswell at the start of the season, but what he has gotten is a player that, after coming into the season with just two career points, has not disappointed in a starting role.
Haswell has tallied at least one goal in the three games he has started this year, including a career-high three goals in the Red's 15-6 win at Yale this past Saturday. Tambroni believes that having another solid goal scorer helps the Red immensely, as it draws attention and pressure off the team's main scorers — junior Joe Boulukos, and seniors Sean Greenhalgh and Kevin Nee, the Red's three leading goal scorers, respectively.
"It's been a relief to have a guy like him," Tambroni said. "The better he plays, the less attention on those other guys."
Haswell went on to say that he is willing to do whatever it takes to help the Red succeed, whether it be scoring or dishing out assists from the behind the net, a place that he finds he is most comfortable playing from.
Though some players might be discontented with taking a backseat, Haswell buys into Tambroni's team-first philosophy.
"We are definitely geared toward the team," Haswell said. "I'm just excited to be a part of this team's offensive success."
This attitude that Haswell brings every day to practice is something that Tambroni hopes will be noticed by some younger players who haven't yet gotten their chance.
"I hope there are some guys that look at Derek to see how hard he has worked to get to where he is," Tambroni said. "His perseverance has gotten him to where he is today — he's a trooper. He's a guy that's been very resilient since the moment he got here."
Next year on Senior Day another No. 6 will play for the Red after walking onto the team. Yet, this time, No. 6 will be starting at attack.
Archived article by hris Mascaro
Sun Sports Editor
Taste Matters
Mexico offers one of the most culturally enriching tourism experiences in the world. Mexican food adds to the mix, providing some of the most simple, yet satisfying cuisine in the world. An example of this is the Chorizo taco, which combines the ancient custom of using corn with a sausage that originated in Spain. Each year, billions of college students go to Mexico for Spring Break. I was tempted to follow the crowd, go down to Cancun and party like an orthopedic surgeon at an orthopedic surgeons' convention. However, being a man of culture and ostentatious belligerence, I rarely pass up the opportunity to alienate myself from the norm and experience something cultural. So I flew south of the border to see the real, unadulterated side of Mexico. I began my b
Cornell Researchers Fight Food Poisoning
In an effort to limit acute gastroenteritis, or food poisoning, the second most prevalent household illness, Cornell professors from the department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences have joined a research team which aims to identify the origin and transmission of pathogens that cause food-related illnesses. Earlier this month, the United States Department of Agriculture formally announced the formation of the Food Safety Research and Response Network (FSRRN), funded by a $5 million grant from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. The research team is comprised of over 50 experts from 18 different campuses across the country. Among those distinguished researchers are Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine faculty members Yrjo Grohn, epidemiology, chair of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences; Yung-Fu Chang, assistant director of the microbiology section; Ynte Schukken, epidemiology, director of Quality Milk Promotion Services (QMPS); Lorin Warnick, ambulatory and production medicine; Hussni Mohammed, epidemiology; and Linda L. Garrison-Tikofsky, senior extension veterinarian at QMPS. The initiative focuses on researching the transmission and spread of pathogens in the pre-harvest stage, through four distinct areas of research based on the findings of the American Academy of Microbiology's Pre-Harvest Food Safety Colloquium, which took place in December, 2003. These projects include pre-harvest food safety pathogen detection, surveillance and risk assessment, public health impact of pre-harvest food safety pathogens, microbial ecology of pre-harvest food safety pathogens, and cost-effective intervention strategies for pre-harvest food safety pathogens. While most studies have been done post-harvest, with focus on food science, the new pre-harvest study will focus on veterinary epidemiology, or the causes, distribution, and control of diseases within animals. Grohn and Warnick along with colleagues at Washington State University are leading the study of how animals become infected with Salmonella and other pathogens. This study coincides with their current research, funded by the National Institute of Health, of the spreading of Salmonella within a herd. Chang is co-leading research on the factors necessary for Campylobacter and Salmonella to colonize in animals. However, while most researchers in the network are carrying out pathogen research, research specifically funded by the grant has not yet begun. "The current phase [of the initiative] is that the decision to finalize first year projects is almost completed," said Grohn. This initiative coincides with the USDA's current exploration of the efficiency of larger grants to a series of institutions, as opposed to its traditionally smaller grants to single institutions. The USDA currently has bestowed 3 large-scale grants at this time. While Grohn sees the potential for the project "to put together the best combination of people and resources," he also said that researchers have difficulty communicating. Despite monthly conference calls and annual meetings, researchers are not always aware of the progress and undertakings of different divisions within the team. The research network has the secondary responsibility of modifying its research, at the request of other federal and state agencies, to address any future food related epidemics.Archived article by Katie PollackSun Contributor

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Grainy footage of a cable car may invoke treasured memories of a family skiing trip for the more culturally refined or affluent child, but not for this football fan.
No: for me, it conjures nostalgia of a childhood sat in the uncomfortable leather upholstery of my father's study chair, my small hairless arms sprawled over a keyboard and mouse, the PC version of FIFA 98: Road to the World Cup loading at a snail's pace.
Cut from the cable cab to the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, then a flyover shot of the expectant cauldron of the Maracanã: I am six years old, it's Brazil vs Argentina, and I'm playing on easy mode.
John Motson, a familiar voice to FIFA players for the subsequent decade, sat beside Andy Gray (prior personal disgrace) in the commentary box, cautiously optimistic about this titanic battle between two sets of players that move like they're running in treacle yet glide as if on roller-blades, their identical faces all resembling a snarling Rivaldo, built in a Minecraft mirror universe by an unhappy god.
The tactical battle was as rudimentary as you would expect for a child who had just about mastered my controls: get the ball, hold down sprint, each attempt on goal a Maradona-esque slalom run with a bald player you hoped was Ronaldo, thumping in goal after goal. As a boy with milk teeth intact, the fact that Argentina's midfield was willfully collapsing to accommodate my forward runs did little to inhibit the ensuing celebrations.
FIFA 98: RTWC was a great conversation starter in the playground. Myriad national teams – 178 to be exact; the sort of number inconceivable today in the world of photo-realistic facial graphics, sponsorship packages and the slow transition from comprehensive offline product to commercialised online 'experiences', where unimaginative screenwriting, trading card economics and humiliation by Korean teenagers sit together as uncomfortably as Patrice Evra and Paris Saint-Germain's guests of honour.
By offering such a staggering global level of quantity, by letting you play through qualification as any nation from any continent, what better way to impress the cool kids in my class than invite them over for my mother's comparatively unseasoned cooking, a kickabout in the back garden and a Saturday afternoon multiplayer session trying to lift the World Cup with India?
In many ways, FIFA 98's unabashed commitment to globalisation did more for clumsy and infantile attempts at race relations in my household than any well-meaning local government bridge-building initiatives happening elsewhere in Hounslow.
But once the World Cup had been won numerous times – when the tickertape had fallen on the Solomon Islands or Equatorial Guinea for the umpteenth time – the piece de resistance, a leftover from FIFA 97, would drag you back in: indoor mode. A five-a-side experience where the ball could be bounced off the sides to create outrageous volleys, it's a game mode that is in many ways a predecessor to the pre-match warm-up challenges found in contemporary FIFA games, but could well be a mode of its own that ought to make a glorious return.
Also, you could rush the goalkeeper, take them out at any time and get a straight red, and then keep doing that until the game was abandoned. That was definitely what somebody was doing in their office when they came up with the idea for Red Card Soccer, which came out in 2002, and completely missed the point about why it was funny in the first place. Zinedine Zidane's headbutt isn't a shocking and iconic sporting moment if headbutts were allowed, and if anything, actively encouraged.
Celebration cutscenes, player customisation and a soundtrack that slaps even to this day, it's absolutely one of the best football games ever made. In modern context, where football tournament games are often lazy cash-grabs limited to the qualifying teams with little additional context, it felt like a full experience in its own right.
So let's raise a glass to FIFA 98: RTWC, and for the love of all that's good, don't play it on an emulator – it might not hold up as you remembered. And nor should it have to.


Last Tuesday, we gave tips on preventing falls in your home. Then, that same day, word came out that former first lady Nancy Reagan was recovering from a fall that broke her ribs … six weeks ago. She had to cancel an appearance Tuesday because of it.
All this is why, at Preferred Care at Home, we place a strong focus on helping older people prevent falls—and why we offer a free, 53-point home-safety check. To schedule one, just contact your local Preferred Care at Home location.


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The Rossi Traditional Power Reclining Sofa with Full Chaise Cushion by New Classic at Furniture Superstore - Rochester, MN in the Rochester, Southern Minnesota area. Product availability may vary. Contact us for the most current availability on this product.
Promote traditional style in your home with the Rossi reclining living room collection. Rolled panel arms are adorned with nailhead trim for a classic detail, while fiber filled backs and foam cushions provide ultimate support and comfort. With reclining pieces available with a power feature, you are sure to find the perfect position to relax in. Multiple top grain leather seat, seat back, and arm covers provide a quality look to each piece, while leather match on the sides and back keep them affordable.
The Rossi collection is a great option if you are looking for Traditional furniture in the Rochester, Southern Minnesota area.
Browse other items in the Rossi collection from Furniture Superstore - Rochester, MN in the Rochester, Southern Minnesota area.


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James Wan, Sam Raimi to Produce Feature Film Adaptation of Dutch Horror Short 'The Burden'
JS Entertainment and Starlight Media won the auction for the rights on Tuesday
Beatrice Verhoeven | May 22, 2019 @ 10:51 AM	Last Updated: May 22, 2019 @ 11:15 AM
James Wan and Sam Raimi are set to produce the feature film adaptation of the Dutch horror short, "The Burden," under their respective production banners, Atomic Monster and Ghost House Pictures.
JS Entertainment and Starlight Media won the auction for the rights on Tuesday. Nico van den Brink directed and wrote the short, which follows a young woman who goes to her boyfriend's home only to discover a sinister history. The short was financed and produced by Dutch company NL Film en TV.
Van den Brink's previous short horror film, titled "Sweet Tooth," was acquired by New Line Cinema, which Wan's Atomic Monster is also producing.
Also Read: 'Aquaman' Director James Wan Calls VFX Oscar Snub a 'F-ing Disgrace'
Atomic Monster's upcoming productions include "Annabelle Comes Home" and WBTV's "Swamp Thing." Wan recently directed "Aquaman" for Warner Bros. He is represented by Mortimer PR, Paradigm and Stacey Testro International.
Raimi most recently executive produced a short titled "The World Planet on Earth" and produced the horror movie "Don't Breathe." He is next producing both "Crawl" and "Grudge." He is represented by CAA and Stars Road Entertainment.
Deadline first reported the news.
'Mortal Kombat': Warner Bros Sets Spring 2021 Release for James Wan-Produced Film
By Ross A. Lincoln | May 17, 2019 @ 6:18 PM
'Swamp Thing': DC Universe Unleashes First Trailer for James Wan-Produced Series (Video)
By Tim Baysinger | April 24, 2019 @ 9:00 AM
Gary Dauberman to Adapt Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot,' James Wan to Produce
By Beatrice Verhoeven | April 23, 2019 @ 2:30 PM


Autumn is definitely one of the best times to hit the open road in the search of wilderness adventure and if you're the sort that just want to see where the road takes you, having a top notch trailer in tow is always a good idea and they don't come much cooler or more versatile than the awesome looking Timberleaf Pika Trailer. This amazing construction from Timberleaf is another classic teardrop offering from the outdoors loving brand and if you're wanting the ultimate in adventure trailers look no further.
The Pika Trailer from Timberleaf is compact and rugged and has been carefully conceived, designed and crafted to take any outdoor adventure in its stride. Regardless of how remote the adventure, the Pika will be able to tackle any terrains with ease and we're loving the fantastic aesthetics of this teardrop trailer here at Coolector HQ. The newest addition to the already excellent line up of trailers from Timberleaf, the Pika might just be their finest to date.
Incredibly well crafted and boasting plenty of clever little design features geared towards the great outdoors, the Pika Trailer from Timberleaf is a lighter, more compact alternative to their exceptionally popular, classic model. Crafted for rugged simplicity, the Pika may be just what your heart desires and it will be your greatest ally for all those adventurous road trips that you've got planned this autumn and beyond.
The Pika Trailer from Timberleaf gets its name from the American Pika, a small rabbit-like mammal that resides and thrives in the high-alpine terrain throughout the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The Pika is an adventurous miniature rabbit that has evolved to traverse the rough and rocky tundra and the same could be said of this immeasurably eye-catching trailer from Timberleaf. It is is thirty-six percent smaller than the Classic model, and boasts a 54-inch by 96-inch frame, meaning it offers all of the quality craftsmanship Timberleaf Trailers has become synonymous with, in a lighter and more agile package.
A fairly lightweight offering, the Timberleaf Pika Trailer weighs in at 1025lbs for the base model, which is important because it means the Pika is easily towed by the majority of passenger vehicles on the market. The Pika Trailer is available with all of the same aluminium colour options for the sides, and clear anodized aluminium top for unparalleled visual impact for the life of the trailer. Which, given its rugged, uncompromising construction, will be a mighty long time.
The Timberleaf Pika Trailer comes in the same three suspension packages as their Classic model, and you can opt for an 'Offroad Package', with black powder-coated fenders, and custom-matched wheels. The Offroad Package boasts Timbren Axleless suspension with a 4″ lift, 33″ BFG All-Terrain tires, electric brakes, rock armor, and Max Coupler articulating hitch. It is truly built for whatever adventure that you can think of.
With the base package for the Pika Trailer from Timberleaf starting at a most reasonable $11,750, it's hard not to be impressed with the aesthetics and performance of this magnificent construct. If you find yourself in the market for a new adventure ally, the Pika would be our pick here at The Coolector and it really is one of the coolest looking adventure machines we've come across.


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eHarmony Settles Lawsuit, Will Merge Gay and Straight Dating Sites
By Samuel Axon 2010-01-28 14:17:33 UTC
Dating site eHarmony has settled a lawsuit in California by agreeing to end the separation of its homosexual and heterosexual matchmaking services.
eHarmony agreed to open a site for gay and lesbian customers after another lawsuit in 2008, but it did not cross-promote or even link between the two sites, and it kept subscriptions separate.
A gay man from New Jersey named Eric McKinley filed suit against eHarmony in 2008 for not offering matchmaking for gays and lesbians. eHarmony settled by agreeing to launch a service for gay and lesbian customers called Compatible Partners. eHarmony's launch of Compatible Partners was called a "shotgun wedding" by the Los Angeles Times, though. There wasn't even a link to Compatible Partners at eharmony.com.
Furthermore, Compatible Partners had a completely different subscription system. Bisexuals had to pay two subscription fees to have access to both sexes.
The newer lawsuit was settled in California yesterday. eHarmony will add its name to Compatible Partners, link it from the main eHarmony website alongside its Jewish, black, Christian and senior portals, and unify subscriptions. The company will also pay out $500,000 to around 150 Californians to settle. That's in addition to the $1.5 million it has spent defending itself in court.
[via The Next Web]
Samuel Axon
Samuel Axon is a digital content producer in New York City. He has worked as an editor at Engadget, Mashable and the Joystiq network, and currently leads content strategy as Editorial Director at Sprout Social.
Topics: Business, dating, eHarmony, online dating, Politics


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LDH Consulting Services helps libraries and vendors navigate the intersection of library data and privacy.
What does LDH stand for?
Library Data Hat.
Becky Yoose, CIPP/US, CIPT, MA-LIS
Founder and Library Data Privacy Consultant
For over a decade, Becky has wrangled library data in its various forms, from cataloging and metadata to administrating library systems and library data warehouses. Becky has worked with library data flows at both large and small academic and public libraries, as well as with both proprietary and open source library applications and systems. Receiving her MA-LIS from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2008, Becky is also an accredited information privacy professional with the International Association of Privacy Professionals, which brings valuable knowledge of data privacy practices and regulations in the US into library practices.
Becky's expertise has been recognized by the library community with invitations to participate in the Library Values and Privacy Summit and the National Web Privacy Forum as well as a guest lecturer on library privacy in various groups and classes, including the Library Freedom Institute. Becky is also heavily involved in the ALA IFC Privacy Subcommittee, where she helped revise and update the Library Privacy Guidelines for Vendors in 2020 and contributes to the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.
Selected works by Becky in library data privacy:
Briney, Kristin, and Becky Yoose. (June 2022). Managing Data for Patron Privacy: Comprehensive Strategies for Libraries. ALA Editions. https://www.alastore.ala.org/mdpp.
Yoose, Becky. (2021 May 25). "The Curious Case of Library Data Privacy." Evergreen International Conference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZzdL1OgxTY&t=793s.
Briney, Kristin, Becky Yoose, John Mark Ockerbloom, and Shea Swauger. (2020). "A Practical Guide to Performing a Library User Data Risk Assessment in Library-Built Systems." DLF Privacy and Ethics in Technology Working Group. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/V2C3M.
Yoose, Becky. (2020 April ). "A Crash Course in Protecting Library Data While Working From Home." LITA and OIF. http://www.ala.org/lita/crash-course-protecting-library-data-while-working-home.
Robinson, Michael. (2018 June 25). "Defense Against the Dark Arts: Techniques and Practices to Protect User Privacy When Conducting Data Analytics. (Panel)" American Library Association Annual Conference. New Orleans, LA.
Yoose, Becky. (2018 April 11). "Wrangling Library Patron Data." LITA Privacy Webinar. Accessible at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_W-3I9CSz6Uu5pFnKsc2USMGA4kOxzx25XiUj_e57bE/edit?usp=sharing.
Yoose, Becky (2018 February 15). "Data Analytics and Patron Privacy in Libraries: A Balancing Act." Code4Lib Conference. Washington, DC. Accessible at https://osf.io/xb4mf/.
Yoose, Becky. (2017 December 5). "Patrons, Privacy, and Technology in the Library." Seattle Tech Solidarity meeting, Seattle, WA. Accessible at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14gaycdLUCiD71FlY2BAsNggsG3D6fmVQFDmkSSdD1XA/edit?usp=sharing.
Yoose, Becky (2017). "Balancing Privacy and Strategic Planning Needs: A Case Study in De-Identification of Patron Data." Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy 2(1). Accessible at https://journals.ala.org/index.php/jifp/article/view/6250.
ALA Library Privacy Guidelines Resource and Checklist Working Group. (October 2016). Researched and drafted checklist and resource list to accompany the ALA Library Privacy Guidelines for Library Websites, OPACs, and Discovery Services. Accessible at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/checklists/OPAC.
Yoose, Becky, and Stephen Halsey (2016 April 7). "De-identifying patron data to balance privacy and insight." Public Library Association. Denver, CO. Accessible at http://2016.placonference.org/program/de-identifying-patron-data-to-balance-privacy-and-insight/.
For the entire backstory, feel free to browse Becky's full CV on her personal website.
Executive Assistant, Keeper of Secrets
#PrivacyLlama
Assistant to the Executive Assistant, Travel and Event Coordinator, Keeper of Snacks


Composed from a single basic element, a polished aluminum equilateral triangle fitted with electrical sockets. The bulbs are halogen but are covered by a glass orb making it appear as though the bulb is huge but is mostly decorative. It is a bit of a blow to energy-saving but a big chandelier is meant for community areas, lobbies and rooms that need a lot of light for special occasions and so it also needs to be decorative."


Tired of the same old spread on your morning toast, try our maple butter instead. Use it as an icing on your cakes and muffins for a delicious Canadian treat. Smooth, melting maple butter on all your next desserts is a must after you've tried it once.
Certified organic, our production is 100% chemicals free, and 100% animal fat free, using contamination-proof stainless equipment. This certification also ensures that our maple trees are located at a safe distance from any agricultural field using pesticides.


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Tag Archives: Anil Ananthaswamy
The metaverse or not
The 'metaverse' seems to be everywhere these days (especially since Facebook has made a number of announcements bout theirs (more about that later in this posting).
At this point, the metaverse is very hyped up despite having been around for about 30 years. According to the Wikipedia timeline (see the Metaverse entry), the first one was a MOO in 1993 called 'The Metaverse'. In any event, it seems like it might be a good time to see what's changed since I dipped my toe into a metaverse (Second Life by Linden Labs) in 2007.
(For grammar buffs, I switched from definite article [the] to indefinite article [a] purposefully. In reading the various opinion pieces and announcements, it's not always clear whether they're talking about a single, overarching metaverse [the] replacing the single, overarching internet or whether there will be multiple metaverses, in which case [a].)
The hype/the buzz … call it what you will
This September 6, 2021 piece by Nick Pringle for Fast Company dates the beginning of the metaverse to a 1992 science fiction novel before launching into some typical marketing hype (for those who don't know, hype is the short form for hyperbole; Note: Links have been removed),
The term metaverse was coined by American writer Neal Stephenson in his 1993 sci-fi hit Snow Crash. But what was far-flung fiction 30 years ago is now nearing reality. At Facebook's most recent earnings call [June 2021], CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company's vision to unify communities, creators, and commerce through virtual reality: "Our overarching goal across all of these initiatives is to help bring the metaverse to life."
So what actually is the metaverse? It's best explained as a collection of 3D worlds you explore as an avatar. Stephenson's original vision depicted a digital 3D realm in which users interacted in a shared online environment. Set in the wake of a catastrophic global economic crash, the metaverse in Snow Crash emerged as the successor to the internet. Subcultures sprung up alongside new social hierarchies, with users expressing their status through the appearance of their digital avatars.
Today virtual worlds along these lines are formed, populated, and already generating serious money. Household names like Roblox and Fortnite are the most established spaces; however, there are many more emerging, such as Decentraland, Upland, Sandbox, and the soon to launch Victoria VR.
These metaverses [emphasis mine] are peaking at a time when reality itself feels dystopian, with a global pandemic, climate change, and economic uncertainty hanging over our daily lives. The pandemic in particular saw many of us escape reality into online worlds like Roblox and Fortnite. But these spaces have proven to be a place where human creativity can flourish amid crisis.
In fact, we are currently experiencing an explosion of platforms parallel to the dotcom boom. While many of these fledgling digital worlds will become what Ask Jeeves was to Google, I predict [emphasis mine] that a few will match the scale and reach of the tech giant—or even exceed it.
Because the metaverse brings a new dimension to the internet, brands and businesses will need to consider their current and future role within it. Some brands are already forging the way and establishing a new genre of marketing in the process: direct to avatar (D2A). Gucci sold a virtual bag for more than the real thing in Roblox; Nike dropped virtual Jordans in Fortnite; Coca-Cola launched avatar wearables in Decentraland, and Sotheby's has an art gallery that your avatar can wander in your spare time.
D2A is being supercharged by blockchain technology and the advent of digital ownership via NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. NFTs are already making waves in art and gaming. More than $191 million was transacted on the "play to earn" blockchain game Axie Infinity in its first 30 days this year. This kind of growth makes NFTs hard for brands to ignore. In the process, blockchain and crypto are starting to feel less and less like "outsider tech." There are still big barriers to be overcome—the UX of crypto being one, and the eye-watering environmental impact of mining being the other. I believe technology will find a way. History tends to agree.
Detractors see the metaverse as a pandemic fad, wrapping it up with the current NFT bubble or reducing it to Zuck's [Jeffrey Zuckerberg and Facebook] dystopian corporate landscape. This misses the bigger behavior change that is happening among Gen Alpha. When you watch how they play, it becomes clear that the metaverse is more than a buzzword.
For Gen Alpha [emphasis mine], gaming is social life. While millennials relentlessly scroll feeds, Alphas and Zoomers [emphasis mine] increasingly stroll virtual spaces with their friends. Why spend the evening staring at Instagram when you can wander around a virtual Harajuku with your mates? If this seems ridiculous to you, ask any 13-year-old what they think.
Who is Nick Pringle and how accurate are his predictions?
At the end of his September 6, 2021 piece, you'll find this,
Nick Pringle is SVP [Senior Vice President] executive creative director at R/GA London.
According to the R/GA Wikipedia entry,
… [the company] evolved from a computer-assisted film-making studio to a digital design and consulting company, as part of a major advertising network.
Here's how Pringle sees our future, his September 6, 2021 piece,
By thinking "virtual first," you can see how these spaces become highly experimental, creative, and valuable. The products you can design aren't bound by physics or marketing convention—they can be anything, and are now directly "ownable" through blockchain. …
I believe that the metaverse is here to stay. That means brands and marketers now have the exciting opportunity to create products that exist in multiple realities. The winners will understand that the metaverse is not a copy of our world, and so we should not simply paste our products, experiences, and brands into it.
I emphasized "These metaverses …" in the previous section to highlight the fact that I find the use of 'metaverses' vs. 'worlds' confusing as the words are sometimes used as synonyms and sometimes as distinctions. We do it all the time in all sorts of conversations but for someone who's an outsider to a particular occupational group or subculture, the shifts can make for confusion.
As for Gen Alpha and Zoomer, I'm not a fan of 'Gen anything' as shorthand for describing a cohort based on birth years. For example, "For Gen Alpha [emphasis mine], gaming is social life," ignores social and economic classes, as well as, the importance of locations/geography, e.g., Afghanistan in contrast to the US.
To answer the question I asked, Pringle does not mention any record of accuracy for his predictions for the future but I was able to discover that he is a "multiple Cannes Lions award-winning creative" (more here).
A more measured view of the metaverse
An October 4, 2021 article (What is the metaverse, and do I have to care? One part definition, one part aspiration, one part hype) by Adi Robertson and Jay Peters for The Verge offers a deeper dive into the metaverse (Note: Links have been removed),
In recent months you may have heard about something called the metaverse. Maybe you've read that the metaverse is going to replace the internet. Maybe we're all supposed to live there. Maybe Facebook (or Epic, or Roblox, or dozens of smaller companies) is trying to take it over. And maybe it's got something to do with NFTs [non-fungible tokens]?
Unlike a lot of things The Verge covers, the metaverse is tough to explain for one reason: it doesn't necessarily exist. It's partly a dream for the future of the internet and partly a neat way to encapsulate some current trends in online infrastructure, including the growth of real-time 3D worlds.
Then what is the real metaverse?
There's no universally accepted definition of a real "metaverse," except maybe that it's a fancier successor to the internet. Silicon Valley metaverse proponents sometimes reference a description from venture capitalist Matthew Ball, author of the extensive Metaverse Primer:
"The Metaverse is an expansive network of persistent, real-time rendered 3D worlds and simulations that support continuity of identity, objects, history, payments, and entitlements, and can be experienced synchronously by an effectively unlimited number of users, each with an individual sense of presence."
Facebook, arguably the tech company with the biggest stake in the metaverse, describes it more simply:
"The 'metaverse' is a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren't in the same physical space as you."
There are also broader metaverse-related taxonomies like one from game designer Raph Koster, who draws a distinction between "online worlds," "multiverses," and "metaverses." To Koster, online worlds are digital spaces — from rich 3D environments to text-based ones — focused on one main theme. Multiverses are "multiple different worlds connected in a network, which do not have a shared theme or ruleset," including Ready Player One's OASIS. And a metaverse is "a multiverse which interoperates more with the real world," incorporating things like augmented reality overlays, VR dressing rooms for real stores, and even apps like Google Maps.
If you want something a little snarkier and more impressionistic, you can cite digital scholar Janet Murray — who has described the modern metaverse ideal as "a magical Zoom meeting that has all the playful release of Animal Crossing."
But wait, now Ready Player One isn't a metaverse and virtual worlds don't have to be 3D? It sounds like some of these definitions conflict with each other.
An astute observation.
Why is the term "metaverse" even useful? "The internet" already covers mobile apps, websites, and all kinds of infrastructure services. Can't we roll virtual worlds in there, too?
Matthew Ball favors the term "metaverse" because it creates a clean break with the present-day internet. [emphasis mine] "Using the metaverse as a distinctive descriptor allows us to understand the enormity of that change and in turn, the opportunity for disruption," he said in a phone interview with The Verge. "It's much harder to say 'we're late-cycle into the last thing and want to change it.' But I think understanding this next wave of computing and the internet allows us to be more proactive than reactive and think about the future as we want it to be, rather than how to marginally affect the present."
A more cynical spin is that "metaverse" lets companies dodge negative baggage associated with "the internet" in general and social media in particular. "As long as you can make technology seem fresh and new and cool, you can avoid regulation," researcher Joan Donovan told The Washington Post in a recent article about Facebook and the metaverse. "You can run defense on that for several years before the government can catch up."
There's also one very simple reason: it sounds more futuristic than "internet" and gets investors and media people (like us!) excited.
People keep saying NFTs are part of the metaverse. Why?
NFTs are complicated in their own right, and you can read more about them here. Loosely, the thinking goes: NFTs are a way of recording who owns a specific virtual good, creating and transferring virtual goods is a big part of the metaverse, thus NFTs are a potentially useful financial architecture for the metaverse. Or in more practical terms: if you buy a virtual shirt in Metaverse Platform A, NFTs can create a permanent receipt and let you redeem the same shirt in Metaverse Platforms B to Z.
Lots of NFT designers are selling collectible avatars like CryptoPunks, Cool Cats, and Bored Apes, sometimes for astronomical sums. Right now these are mostly 2D art used as social media profile pictures. But we're already seeing some crossover with "metaverse"-style services. The company Polygonal Mind, for instance, is building a system called CryptoAvatars that lets people buy 3D avatars as NFTs and then use them across multiple virtual worlds.
If you have the time, the October 4, 2021 article (What is the metaverse, and do I have to care? One part definition, one part aspiration, one part hype) is definitely worth the read.
Facebook's multiverse and other news
Since starting this post sometime in September 2021, the situation regarding Facebook has changed a few times. I've decided to begin my version of the story from a summer 2021 announcement.
On Monday, July 26, 2021, Facebook announced a new Metaverse product group. From a July 27, 2021 article by Scott Rosenberg for Yahoo News (Note: A link has been removed),
Facebook announced Monday it was forming a new Metaverse product group to advance its efforts to build a 3D social space using virtual and augmented reality tech.
Facebook's new Metaverse product group will report to Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's vice president of virtual and augmented reality [emphasis mine], who announced the new organization in a Facebook post.
Facebook, integrity, and safety in the metaverse
On September 27, 2021 Facebook posted this webpage (Building the Metaverse Responsibly by Andrew Bosworth, VP, Facebook Reality Labs [emphasis mine] and Nick Clegg, VP, Global Affairs) on its site,
The metaverse won't be built overnight by a single company. We'll collaborate with policymakers, experts and industry partners to bring this to life.
We're announcing a $50 million investment in global research and program partners to ensure these products are developed responsibly.
We develop technology rooted in human connection that brings people together. As we focus on helping to build the next computing platform, our work across augmented and virtual reality and consumer hardware will deepen that human connection regardless of physical distance and without being tied to devices.
Introducing the XR [extended reality] Programs and Research Fund
There's a long road ahead. But as a starting point, we're announcing the XR Programs and Research Fund, a two-year $50 million investment in programs and external research to help us in this effort. Through this fund, we'll collaborate with industry partners, civil rights groups, governments, nonprofits and academic institutions to determine how to build these technologies responsibly.
Where integrity and safety are concerned Facebook is once again having some credibility issues according to an October 5, 2021 Associated Press article (Whistleblower testifies Facebook chooses profit over safety, calls for 'congressional action') posted on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) news online website.
Rebranding Facebook's integrity and safety issues away?
It seems Facebook's credibility issues are such that the company is about to rebrand itself according to an October 19, 2021 article by Alex Heath for The Verge (Note: Links have been removed),
Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company's annual Connect conference on October 28th [2021], but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant's ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. A spokesperson for Facebook declined to comment for this story.
Facebook already has more than 10,000 employees building consumer hardware like AR glasses that Zuckerberg believes will eventually be as ubiquitous as smartphones. In July, he told The Verge that, over the next several years, "we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company."
A rebrand could also serve to further separate the futuristic work Zuckerberg is focused on from the intense scrutiny Facebook is currently under for the way its social platform operates today. A former employee turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen, recently leaked a trove of damning internal documents to The Wall Street Journal and testified about them before Congress. Antitrust regulators in the US and elsewhere are trying to break the company up, and public trust in how Facebook does business is falling.
Facebook isn't the first well-known tech company to change its company name as its ambitions expand. In 2015, Google reorganized entirely under a holding company called Alphabet, partly to signal that it was no longer just a search engine, but a sprawling conglomerate with companies making driverless cars and health tech. And Snapchat rebranded to Snap Inc. in 2016, the same year it started calling itself a "camera company" and debuted its first pair of Spectacles camera glasses.
If you have time, do read Heath's article in its entirety.
An October 20, 2021 Thomson Reuters item on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) news online includes quotes from some industry analysts about the rebrand,
"It reflects the broadening out of the Facebook business. And then, secondly, I do think that Facebook's brand is probably not the greatest given all of the events of the last three years or so," internet analyst James Cordwell at Atlantic Equities said.
"Having a different parent brand will guard against having this negative association transferred into a new brand, or other brands that are in the portfolio," said Shankha Basu, associate professor of marketing at University of Leeds.
Tyler Jadah's October 20, 2021 article for the Daily Hive includes an earlier announcement (not mentioned in the other two articles about the rebranding), Note: A link has been removed,
Earlier this week [October 17, 2021], Facebook announced it will start "a journey to help build the next computing platform" and will hire 10,000 new high-skilled jobs within the European Union (EU) over the next five years.
"Working with others, we're developing what is often referred to as the 'metaverse' — a new phase of interconnected virtual experiences using technologies like virtual and augmented reality," wrote Facebook's Nick Clegg, the VP of Global Affairs. "At its heart is the idea that by creating a greater sense of "virtual presence," interacting online can become much closer to the experience of interacting in person."
Clegg says the metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities across the globe and the virtual world.
In an email with Facebook's Corporate Communications Canada, David Troya-Alvarez told Daily Hive, "We don't comment on rumour or speculation," in regards to The Verge's report.
I will update this posting when and if Facebook rebrands itself into a 'metaverse' company.
***See Oct. 28, 2021 update at the end of this posting and prepare yourself for 'Meta'.***
Who (else) cares about integrity and safety in the metaverse?
Apparently, the international legal firm, Norton Rose Fulbright also cares about safety and integrity in the metaverse. Here's more from their July 2021 The Metaverse: The evolution of a universal digital platform webpage,
In technology, first-mover advantage is often significant. This is why BigTech and other online platforms are beginning to acquire software businesses to position themselves for the arrival of the Metaverse. They hope to be at the forefront of profound changes that the Metaverse will bring in relation to digital interactions between people, between businesses, and between them both.
What is the Metaverse? The short answer is that it does not exist yet. At the moment it is vision for what the future will be like where personal and commercial life is conducted digitally in parallel with our lives in the physical world. Sounds too much like science fiction? For something that does not exist yet, the Metaverse is drawing a huge amount of attention and investment in the tech sector and beyond.
Here we look at what the Metaverse is, what its potential is for disruptive change, and some of the key legal and regulatory issues future stakeholders may need to consider.
What are the potential legal issues?
The revolutionary nature of the Metaverse is likely to give rise to a range of complex legal and regulatory issues. We consider some of the key ones below. As time goes by, naturally enough, new ones will emerge.
Participation in the Metaverse will involve the collection of unprecedented amounts and types of personal data. Today, smartphone apps and websites allow organisations to understand how individuals move around the web or navigate an app. Tomorrow, in the Metaverse, organisations will be able to collect information about individuals' physiological responses, their movements and potentially even brainwave patterns, thereby gauging a much deeper understanding of their customers' thought processes and behaviours.
Users participating in the Metaverse will also be "logged in" for extended amounts of time. This will mean that patterns of behaviour will be continually monitored, enabling the Metaverse and the businesses (vendors of goods and services) participating in the Metaverse to understand how best to service the users in an incredibly targeted way.
The hungry Metaverse participant
How might actors in the Metaverse target persons participating in the Metaverse? Let us assume one such woman is hungry at the time of participating. The Metaverse may observe a woman frequently glancing at café and restaurant windows and stopping to look at cakes in a bakery window, and determine that she is hungry and serve her food adverts accordingly.
Contrast this with current technology, where a website or app can generally only ascertain this type of information if the woman actively searched for food outlets or similar on her device.
Therefore, in the Metaverse, a user will no longer need to proactively provide personal data by opening up their smartphone and accessing their webpage or app of choice. Instead, their data will be gathered in the background while they go about their virtual lives.
This type of opportunity comes with great data protection responsibilities. Businesses developing, or participating in, the Metaverse will need to comply with data protection legislation when processing personal data in this new environment. The nature of the Metaverse raises a number of issues around how that compliance will be achieved in practice.
Who is responsible for complying with applicable data protection law?
In many jurisdictions, data protection laws place different obligations on entities depending on whether an entity determines the purpose and means of processing personal data (referred to as a "controller" under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) or just processes personal data on behalf of others (referred to as a "processor" under the GDPR).
In the Metaverse, establishing which entity or entities have responsibility for determining how and why personal data will be processed, and who processes personal data on behalf of another, may not be easy. It will likely involve picking apart a tangled web of relationships, and there may be no obvious or clear answers – for example:
Will there be one main administrator of the Metaverse who collects all personal data provided within it and determines how that personal data will be processed and shared?
Or will multiple entities collect personal data through the Metaverse and each determine their own purposes for doing so?
Either way, many questions arise, including:
How should the different entities each display their own privacy notice to users?
Or should this be done jointly?
How and when should users' consent be collected?
Who is responsible if users' personal data is stolen or misused while they are in the Metaverse?
What data sharing arrangements need to be put in place and how will these be implemented?
There's a lot more to this page including a look at Social Media Regulation and Intellectual Property Rights.
One other thing, according to the Norton Rose Fulbright Wikipedia entry, it is one of the ten largest legal firms in the world.
How many realities are there?
I'm starting to think we should talking about RR (real reality), as well as, VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), MR (mixed reality), and XR (extended reality). It seems that all of these (except RR, which is implied) will be part of the 'metaverse', assuming that it ever comes into existence. Happily, I have found a good summarized description of VR/AR/MR/XR in a March 20, 2018 essay by North of 41 on medium.com,
Summary: VR is immersing people into a completely virtual environment; AR is creating an overlay of virtual content, but can't interact with the environment; MR is a mixed of virtual reality and the reality, it creates virtual objects that can interact with the actual environment. XR brings all three Reality (AR, VR, MR) together under one term.
If you have the interest and approximately five spare minutes, read the entire March 20, 2018 essay, which has embedded images illustrating the various realities.
Alternate Mixed Realities: an example
TransforMR: Pose-Aware Object Substitution for Composing Alternate Mixed Realities (ISMAR '21)
Here's a description from one of the researchers, Mohamed Kari, of the video, which you can see above, and the paper he and his colleagues presented at the 20th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2021 (from the TransforMR page on YouTube),
We present TransforMR, a video see-through mixed reality system for mobile devices that performs 3D-pose-aware object substitution to create meaningful mixed reality scenes in previously unseen, uncontrolled, and open-ended real-world environments.
To get a sense of how recent this work is, ISMAR 2021 was held from October 4 – 8, 2021.
The team's 2021 ISMAR paper, TransforMR Pose-Aware Object Substitution for Composing Alternate Mixed Realities by Mohamed Kari, Tobias Grosse-Puppendah, Luis Falconeri Coelho, Andreas Rene Fender, David Bethge, Reinhard Schütte, and Christian Holz lists two educational institutions I'd expect to see (University of Duisburg-Essen and ETH Zürich), the surprise was this one: Porsche AG. Perhaps that explains the preponderance of vehicles in this demonstration.
Space walking in virtual reality
Ivan Semeniuk's October 2, 2021 article for the Globe and Mail highlights a collaboration between Montreal's Felix and Paul Studios with NASA (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and Time studios,
Communing with the infinite while floating high above the Earth is an experience that, so far, has been known to only a handful.
Now, a Montreal production company aims to share that experience with audiences around the world, following the first ever recording of a spacewalk in the medium of virtual reality.
The company, which specializes in creating virtual-reality experiences with cinematic flair, got its long-awaited chance in mid-September when astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide ventured outside the International Space Station for about seven hours to install supports and other equipment in preparation for a new solar array.
The footage will be used in the fourth and final instalment of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, a virtual-reality journey to space that has already garnered a Primetime Emmy Award for its first two episodes.
From the outset, the production was developed to reach audiences through a variety of platforms for 360-degree viewing, including 5G-enabled smart phones and tablets. A domed theatre version of the experience for group audiences opened this week at the Rio Tinto Alcan Montreal Planetarium. Those who desire a more immersive experience can now see the first two episodes in VR form by using a headset available through the gaming and entertainment company Oculus. Scenes from the VR series are also on offer as part of The Infinite, an interactive exhibition developed by Montreal's Phi Studio, whose works focus on the intersection of art and technology. The exhibition, which runs until Nov. 7 [2021], has attracted 40,000 visitors since it opened in July [2021?].
At a time when billionaires are able to head off on private extraterrestrial sojourns that almost no one else could dream of, Lajeunesse [Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder and creative director of Felix and Paul studios] said his project was developed with a very different purpose in mind: making it easier for audiences to become eyewitnesses rather than distant spectators to humanity's greatest adventure.
For the final instalments, the storyline takes viewers outside of the space station with cameras mounted on the Canadarm, and – for the climax of the series – by following astronauts during a spacewalk. These scenes required extensive planning, not only because of the limited time frame in which they could be gathered, but because of the lighting challenges presented by a constantly shifting sun as the space station circles the globe once every 90 minutes.
… Lajeunesse said that it was equally important to acquire shots that are not just technically spectacular but that serve the underlying themes of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience. These include an examination of human adaptation and advancement, and the unity that emerges within a group of individuals from many places and cultures and who must learn to co-exist in a high risk environment in order to achieve a common goal.
If you have the time, do read Semeniuk's October 2, 2021 article in its entirety. You can find the exhibits (hopefully, you're in Montreal) The Infinite here and Space Explorers: The ISS experience here (see the preview below),
The realities and the 'verses
There always seems to be a lot of grappling with new and newish science/technology where people strive to coin terms and define them while everyone, including members of the corporate community, attempts to cash in.
The last time I looked (probably about two years ago), I wasn't able to find any good definitions for alternate reality and mixed reality. (By good, I mean something which clearly explicated the difference between the two.) It was nice to find something this time.
As for Facebook and its attempts to join/create a/the metaverse, the company's timing seems particularly fraught. As well, paradigm-shifting technology doesn't usually start with large corporations. The company is ignoring its own history.
Multiverses
Writing this piece has reminded me of the upcoming movie, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (Wikipedia entry). While this multiverse is based on a comic book, the idea of a Multiverse (Wikipedia entry) has been around for quite some time,
Early recorded examples of the idea of infinite worlds existed in the philosophy of Ancient Greek Atomism, which proposed that infinite parallel worlds arose from the collision of atoms. In the third century BCE, the philosopher Chrysippus suggested that the world eternally expired and regenerated, effectively suggesting the existence of multiple universes across time.[1] The concept of multiple universes became more defined in the Middle Ages.
Multiple universes have been hypothesized in cosmology, physics, astronomy, religion, philosophy, transpersonal psychology, music, and all kinds of literature, particularly in science fiction, comic books and fantasy. In these contexts, parallel universes are also called "alternate universes", "quantum universes", "interpenetrating dimensions", "parallel universes", "parallel dimensions", "parallel worlds", "parallel realities", "quantum realities", "alternate realities", "alternate timelines", "alternate dimensions" and "dimensional planes".
The physics community has debated the various multiverse theories over time. Prominent physicists are divided about whether any other universes exist outside of our own.
Living in a computer simulation or base reality
The whole thing is getting a little confusing for me so I think I'll stick with RR (real reality) or as it's also known base reality. For the notion of base reality, I want to thank astronomer David Kipping of Columbia University in Anil Ananthaswamy's article for this analysis of the idea that we might all be living in a computer simulation (from my December 8, 2020 posting; scroll down about 50% of the way to the "Are we living in a computer simulation?" subhead),
… there is a more obvious answer: Occam's razor, which says that in the absence of other evidence, the simplest explanation is more likely to be correct. The simulation hypothesis is elaborate, presuming realities nested upon realities, as well as simulated entities that can never tell that they are inside a simulation. "Because it is such an overly complicated, elaborate model in the first place, by Occam's razor, it really should be disfavored, compared to the simple natural explanation," Kipping says.
Maybe we are living in base reality after all—The Matrix, Musk and weird quantum physics notwithstanding.
To sum it up (briefly)
I'm sticking with the base reality (or real reality) concept, which is where various people and companies are attempting to create a multiplicity of metaverses or the metaverse effectively replacing the internet. This metaverse can include any all of these realities (AR/MR/VR/XR) along with base reality. As for Facebook's attempt to build 'the metaverse', it seems a little grandiose.
The computer simulation theory is an interesting thought experiment (just like the multiverse is an interesting thought experiment). I'll leave them there.
Wherever it is we are living, these are interesting times.
***Updated October 28, 2021: D. (Devindra) Hardawar's October 28, 2021 article for engadget offers details about the rebranding along with a dash of cynicism (Note: A link has been removed),
Here's what Facebook's metaverse isn't: It's not an alternative world to help us escape from our dystopian reality, a la Snow Crash. It won't require VR or AR glasses (at least, not at first). And, most importantly, it's not something Facebook wants to keep to itself. Instead, as Mark Zuckerberg described to media ahead of today's Facebook Connect conference, the company is betting it'll be the next major computing platform after the rise of smartphones and the mobile web. Facebook is so confident, in fact, Zuckerberg announced that it's renaming itself to "Meta."
After spending the last decade becoming obsessed with our phones and tablets — learning to stare down and scroll practically as a reflex — the Facebook founder thinks we'll be spending more time looking up at the 3D objects floating around us in the digital realm. Or maybe you'll be following a friend's avatar as they wander around your living room as a hologram. It's basically a digital world layered right on top of the real world, or an "embodied internet" as Zuckerberg describes.
Before he got into the weeds for his grand new vision, though, Zuckerberg also preempted criticism about looking into the future now, as the Facebook Papers paint the company as a mismanaged behemoth that constantly prioritizes profit over safety. While acknowledging the seriousness of the issues the company is facing, noting that it'll continue to focus on solving them with "industry-leading" investments, Zuckerberg said:
"The reality is is that there's always going to be issues and for some people… they may have the view that there's never really a great time to focus on the future… From my perspective, I think that we're here to create things and we believe that we can do this and that technology can make things better. So we think it's important to to push forward."
Given the extent to which Facebook, and Zuckerberg in particular, have proven to be untrustworthy stewards of social technology, it's almost laughable that the company wants us to buy into its future. But, like the rise of photo sharing and group chat apps, Zuckerberg at least has a good sense of what's coming next. And for all of his talk of turning Facebook into a metaverse company, he's adamant that he doesn't want to build a metaverse that's entirely owned by Facebook. He doesn't think other companies will either. Like the mobile web, he thinks every major technology company will contribute something towards the metaverse. He's just hoping to make Facebook a pioneer.
"Instead of looking at a screen, or today, how we look at the Internet, I think in the future you're going to be in the experiences, and I think that's just a qualitatively different experience," Zuckerberg said. It's not quite virtual reality as we think of it, and it's not just augmented reality. But ultimately, he sees the metaverse as something that'll help to deliver more presence for digital social experiences — the sense of being there, instead of just being trapped in a zoom window. And he expects there to be continuity across devices, so you'll be able to start chatting with friends on your phone and seamlessly join them as a hologram when you slip on AR glasses.
D. (Devindra) Hardawar's October 28, 2021 article provides a lot more details and I recommend reading it in its entirety.
This entry was posted in New Media, science, science philosophy and tagged Adi Robertson, Akihiko Hoshide, Alex Heath, Alphabet Inc. (Google), Andreas Rene Fender, Andrew Bosworth, Anil Ananthaswamy, Atlantic Equities, augmented reality (AR), base reality, Bored Apes, Christian Holz, Coca Cola, Cool Cats, CryptoPunks, D. Hardawar, David Bethge, David Kipping, David Troya-Alvarez, Decentraland, Devindra Hardawar, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Epic, extended reality (XR), Facebook, Felix and Paul Studios, Félix Lajeunesse, Fortnite, Frances Haugen, Google, International Space Station (ISS), Ivan Semeniuk, James Cordwell, Janet Murray, Jay Peters, Joan Donovan, Luis Falconeri Coelho, Mark Zuckerberg, Matthew Ball, Meta (Facebook), metaverse, Metaverse Primer (book), mixed reality (MR), Mohamed Kari, multiverse, Neal Stephenson, Nick Clegg, Nick Pringle, Nike, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), North of 41, Norton Rose Fulbright, OASIS (Ready Player One), Occam s razor, Phi Studio, Porsche, Raph Koster, real reality (RR), Reinhard Schütte, Roblox, Sandbox, Second Life (Linden Labs), Shankha Basu, Snow Crash (novel), Sotheby's, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience (virtual-reality journey to space), The Infinite (exhibit), Thomas Pesquet, Time (studios), Tobias Grosse-Puppendah, TransforMR, TransforMR Pose-Aware Object Substitution for Composing Alternate Mixed Realities, Tyler Jadah, University of Leeds, Upland, US National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA, Victoria VR, virtual reality (VR), What is the metaverse and do I have to care? One part definition one part aspiration one part hype on October 22, 2021 by Maryse de la Giroday.
A computer simulation inside a computer simulation?
Stumbling across an entry from National Film Board of Canada for the Venice VR (virtual reality) Expanded section at the 77th Venice International Film Festival (September 2 to 12, 2020) and a recent Scientific American article on computer simulations provoked a memory from Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, Dune. From an Oct. 3, 2007 posting on Equivocality; A journal of self-discovery, healing, growth, and growing pains,
Knowing where the trap is — that's the first step in evading it. This is like single combat, Son, only on a larger scale — a feint within a feint within a feint [emphasis mine]…seemingly without end. The task is to unravel it.
—Duke Leto Atreides, Dune [Note: Dune is a 1965 science-fiction novel by US author Frank Herbert]
Now, onto what provoked memory of that phrase.
The first computer simulation "Agence"
Here's a description of "Agence" and its creators from an August 11, 2020 Canada National Film Board (NFB) news release,
Two-time Emmy Award-winning storytelling pioneer Pietro Gagliano's new work Agence (Transitional Forms/National Film Board of Canada) is an industry-first dynamic film that integrates cinematic storytelling, artificial intelligence, and user interactivity to create a different experience each time.
Agence is premiering in official competition in the Venice VR Expanded section at the 77th Venice International Film Festival (September 2 to 12), and accessible worldwide via the online Venice VR Expanded platform.
About the experience
Would you play god to intelligent life? Agence places the fate of artificially intelligent creatures in your hands. In their simulated universe, you have the power to observe, and to interfere. Maintain the balance of their peaceful existence or throw them into a state of chaos as you move from planet to planet. Watch closely and you'll see them react to each other and their emerging world.
Created by Pietro Gagliano, Agence is a co-production between his studio lab Transitional Forms and the NFB. Pietro is a pioneer of new forms of media that allow humans to understand what it means to be machine, and machines what it means to be human. Previously, Pietro co-founded digital studio Secret Location, and with his team, made history in 2015 by winning the first ever Emmy Award for a virtual reality project. His work has been recognized through hundreds of awards and nominations, including two Emmy Awards, 11 Canadian Screen Awards, 31 FWAs, two Webby Awards, a Peabody-Facebook Award, and a Cannes Lion.
Agence is produced by Casey Blustein (Transitional Forms) and David Oppenheim (NFB) and executive produced by Pietro Gagliano (Transitional Forms) and Anita Lee (NFB).
About Transitional Forms
Transitional Forms is a studio lab focused on evolving entertainment formats through the use of artificial intelligence. Through their innovative approach to content and tool creation, their interdisciplinary team transforms valuable research into dynamic, culturally relevant experiences across a myriad of emerging platforms. Dedicated to the intersection of technology and art, Transitional Forms strives to make humans more creative, and machines more human.
About the NFB
David Oppenheim and Anita Lee's recent VR credits also include the acclaimed virtual reality/live performance piece Draw Me Close and The Book of Distance, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is in the "Best of VR" section at Venice this year. Canada's public producer of award-winning creative documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories and participatory experiences, the NFB has won over 7,000 awards, including 21 Webbys and 12 Academy Awards.
The line that caught my eye? "Would you play god to intelligent life?" For the curious, here's the film's trailer,
Now for the second computer simulation (the feint within the feint).
Are we living in a computer simulation?
According to some thinkers in the field, the chances are about 50/50 that we are computer simulations, which makes "Agence" a particularly piquant experience.
An October 13, 2020 article 'Do We Live in a Simulation? Chances are about 50 – 50' by Anil Ananthaswamy for Scientific American poses the question with an answer that's unexpectedly uncertain, Note: Links have been removed,
It is not often that a comedian gives an astrophysicist goose bumps when discussing the laws of physics. But comic Chuck Nice managed to do just that in a recent episode of the podcast StarTalk.The show's host Neil deGrasse Tyson had just explained the simulation argument—the idea that we could be virtual beings living in a computer simulation. If so, the simulation would most likely create perceptions of reality on demand rather than simulate all of reality all the time—much like a video game optimized to render only the parts of a scene visible to a player. "Maybe that's why we can't travel faster than the speed of light, because if we could, we'd be able to get to another galaxy," said Nice, the show's co-host, prompting Tyson to gleefully interrupt. "Before they can program it," the astrophysicist said,delighting at the thought. "So the programmer put in that limit."
Such conversations may seem flippant. But ever since Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxford wrote a seminal paper about the simulation argument in 2003, philosophers, physicists, technologists and, yes, comedians have been grappling with the idea of our reality being a simulacrum. Some have tried to identify ways in which we can discern if we are simulated beings. Others have attempted to calculate the chance of us being virtual entities. Now a new analysis shows that the odds that we are living in base reality—meaning an existence that is not simulated—are pretty much even. But the study also demonstrates that if humans were to ever develop the ability to simulate conscious beings, the chances would overwhelmingly tilt in favor of us, too, being virtual denizens inside someone else's computer. (A caveat to that conclusion is that there is little agreement about what the term "consciousness" means, let alone how one might go about simulating it.)
In 2003 Bostrom imagined a technologically adept civilization that possesses immense computing power and needs a fraction of that power to simulate new realities with conscious beings in them. Given this scenario, his simulation argument showed that at least one proposition in the following trilemma must be true: First, humans almost always go extinct before reaching the simulation-savvy stage. Second, even if humans make it to that stage, they are unlikely to be interested in simulating their own ancestral past. And third, the probability that we are living in a simulation is close to one.
Before Bostrom, the movie The Matrix had already done its part to popularize the notion of simulated realities. And the idea has deep roots in Western and Eastern philosophical traditions, from Plato's cave allegory to Zhuang Zhou's butterfly dream. More recently, Elon Musk gave further fuel to the concept that our reality is a simulation: "The odds that we are in base reality is one in billions," he said at a 2016 conference.
For him [astronomer David Kipping of Columbia University], there is a more obvious answer: Occam's razor, which says that in the absence of other evidence, the simplest explanation is more likely to be correct. The simulation hypothesis is elaborate, presuming realities nested upon realities, as well as simulated entities that can never tell that they are inside a simulation. "Because it is such an overly complicated, elaborate model in the first place, by Occam's razor, it really should be disfavored, compared to the simple natural explanation," Kipping says.
It's all a little mind-boggling (a computer simulation creating and playing with a computer simulation?) and I'm not sure how far how I want to start thinking about the implications (the feint within the feint within the feint). Still, it seems that the idea could be useful as a kind of thought experiment designed to have us rethink our importance in the world. Or maybe, as a way to have a laugh at our own absurdity.
This entry was posted in New Media, robots, science philosophy and tagged 77th Venice International Film Festival, Agence (AI VR), Anil Ananthaswamy, Anita Lee, Casey Blustein, Chuck Nice, Columbia University, David Kipping, David Oppenheim, Do We Live in a Simulation? Chances Are about 50–50, Draw Me Close (VR), Dune (novel), Frank Herbert, National Film Board of Canada, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nick Bostrom, Occam s razor, Pietro Gagliano, Secret Location, simulation argument, Star Talk (podcast), The Book of Distance (VR), Transitional Forms, University of Oxford, Venice VR Expanded on December 8, 2020 by Maryse de la Giroday.
Tears of joy as physicists announce they're pretty sure they found the Higgs Boson
Physicists are jubilant over the announcement from CERN (European Particle Physics Laboratory) that (from the CERN website),
The ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN today presented their latest results in the search for the long-sought Higgs boson. Both experiments see strong indications for the presence of a new particle, which could be the Higgs boson, in the mass region around 126 gigaelectronvolts (GeV). [emphases mine]
The depth of feeling is extraordinary given the announcement is cautious. When you consider that this pursuit of the Higgs boson is international in scope (approximately 150 scientists from Canada and I assume much larger contingents from elsewhere) and the effort has spanned several years, it's fascinating and instructive to observe the jubilance.
Here's a sampling from the July 4, 2012 live blog Lizzy Davies of the UK's Guardian newspaper (with tweets from Guardian science correspondent Ian Sample and others) wrote during the announcement,
7:17 am … The elusive "God particle" has become the most sought-after particle in modern science. Its discovery would be proof of an invisible energy field that fills the vacuum of space, and excitement in the scientific community is at fever pitch.
8.02am: And we're off. First up is Joe Incandela, the leader of the team using the CMS detector to search for new particles. He'll be followed by Fabiola Gianotti from the other team using the Atlas detector.
He says the results are "very strong, very solid".
8.13am: As Incandela speaks, the brilliant Ian Sample is live-tweeting from Cern.
Ian Sample @iansample
I've been told that anyone who thinks they haven't found a new particle after this has lost touch with reality. #cern #lhc #higgs #ichep2012
Incandela "Many people went many days without sleep." #ichep2012 #lhc #cern #higgs
And we're keeping our observations extremely serious in keeping with the potentially historic nature of the day.
Does Joe Incandela (cms spokesman) not look a little like George Clooney? #ichep2012 #lhc #higgs #lhc
8.39am: Big applause.
Anil Ananthaswamy @edgeofphysics
Combined significance of all results 5 standard deviations. Room breaks into applause, whistles #Higgs #LHC
9.44am: Rolf Heuer, Director General of CERN, offers this verdict:
As a layman I would say: I think we have it. You agree?
The audience claps. I think that's a yes.
9.46am: Heuer flashes up on screen a slide that says Cern have discovered "a particle consistent with the Higgs boson- but which one?"
So, while this is undoubtedly a milestone with "global implications", he says, it is also the beginning of a lot more research and investigation. But, he adds, "I think we can be very, very optimistic".
9.49am: Peter Higgs, who first proposed the idea of this boson in 1964 and is now 83, may have shed a tear or two there- a sight which seems to have got everyone else going too.
Manlio De Domenico @manlius84
Peter #Higgs is crying… it's a great day for physics. I am proud of being a physician :°)
I definitely wanted to get that "George Clooney" comment in here so you can have a sense of just how giddy people can get (if you didn't already know) in the midst of an important announcement.
Jeff Forshaw, particle physics professor at the University of Manchester, provides some perspective about the importance of this announcement in his July 4, 2012 posting for the Guardian,
Fundamental science like this is thrilling, not least because of the way that years of hard work, experimentation and mathematical analysis have led us to a worldview of astonishing simplicity and beauty.
We have learned that the universe is made up of particles and that those particles dance around in a crazy quantum way. But the rules of the game are simple – they can be codified (almost) on the back of an envelope and they express the fact that, at its most elemental level, the universe is governed by symmetry. Symmetry and simplicity go hand in hand – half a snowflake is enough information to anticipate what the other half looks like – and so it is with those dancing particles. The discovery that nature is beautifully symmetric means we have very little choice in how the elementary particles do their dance – the rules simply "come for free". Why the universe should be built in such an elegant fashion is not understood yet, but it leaves us with a sense of awe and wonder that we should be privileged to live in such a place.
Now, physicists will begin again as they try to better our understanding of the universe. But for today they will celebrate and I have some quotes from the Canadian contingent about this latest announcement (from the July 4, 2012 TRIUMF news release),
Likening the quest for the Higgs to Christopher Columbus's voyage of
discovery to the New World, Nigel S. Lockyer, director of TRIUMF [based at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada], said,"With ATLAS and the LHC, we set sail in the direction toward what we thought was the land of the Higgs. Last December, we saw a smudge on the horizon and knew we could be getting close to land. With these latest results, we've
seen the shoreline! We know we'll make it to dry land, but the ship is not
in to shore just yet."
The results presented today are labeled preliminary. They are based on data
collected in 2011 and 2012, with the 2012 data still under analysis.
Publication of the analyses shown today is expected around the end of July.
A more complete picture of today's observations will emerge later this year
after the LHC provides the experiments with more data.
"The observation of a new particle at about 125 GeV, or 130 times the mass
of the proton, by both the ATLAS and CMS groups is already a tremendous
achievement," said Rob McPherson, spokesperson of the ATLAS Canada
collaboration, a professor of physics at the University of Victoria and
Institute of Particle Physics scientist. "While our preliminary measurements
show this new particle is consistent with the Higgs boson, we need more data
to be sure that it is definitely the Higgs."
The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and
its significance for our understanding of the universe. Are its properties
as expected for the long-sought Higgs boson, the final\ missing ingredient
in the Standard Model of particle physics? Or is it something more exotic?
The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles from which we, and
every visible thing in the universe, are made, and the forces acting between
them. All the matter that we can see, however, appears to be no more than
about 4% of the total. A more exotic version of the Higgs particle could be
a bridge to understanding the 96% of the universe that remains obscure.
Don't forget there's an open house from 9 am to 11 am today at TRIUMF where you can find out more about the Higgs boson and the latest announcement.
ETA July 4, 2012 1:30 pm PST: You can still attend a live Q&A being held by the journal Nature tomorrow (July 5, 2012) at 2 pm BST or 6 am PST: Live Q&A: Higgs found, so what's next?
This entry was posted in science, science communication and tagged Anil Ananthaswamy, ATLAS, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, CERN, CMS, European Particle Physics Laboratory, Fabiola Gianotti, Higgs boson, Ian Sample, Jeff Forshaw, Joe Incandela, Lizzy Davies, Manlio De Domenico, Nigel S. Lockyer, Peter Higgs, Rob McPherson, Rolf Heuer, TRIUMF on July 4, 2012 by Maryse de la Giroday.


text:
Orlando Baccino Granja (born December 25, 1970 in Buenos Aires) is a male judoka from Argentina. He claimed the silver medal in the Men's Heavyweight (+ 95 kg) division at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba. Baccino represented his native South American country in four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1992.

References

sports-reference
Facebook

1970 births
Living people
Argentine male judoka
Judoka at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Judoka at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Judoka at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Judoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Judoka at the 1991 Pan American Games
Judoka at the 1995 Pan American Games
Judoka at the 1999 Pan American Games
Judoka at the 2011 Pan American Games
Olympic judoka of Argentina
Sportspeople from Buenos Aires
Pan American Games silver medalists for Argentina
Pan American Games bronze medalists for Argentina
Pan American Games medalists in judo
South American Games bronze medalists for Argentina
South American Games medalists in judo
Competitors at the 2010 South American Games
Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games
Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games
20th-century Argentine people
21st-century Argentine people

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I absolutely flipping love this series, I've re-read each book about a hundred times! From the very beginning every fan of this series has been eagerly awaiting Damien's book, it seriously does not disappoint! I don't want to give anything away about the story as I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say much about that. The story follows Allanah and Damien as they reconnect, the course of true love never runs smoothly and that's the case for this pair. Everyone is rooting for them to get their happy ever after but can Allanah let go of past hurt to give Damien a chance?
Damien is everything I hoped he would be and more! He's all grown up now and ready to fight for what he wants, I love when he gets all growly and alpha male. Allanah has a lot going on in this book that she has to deal with, she is more mature and is coming out of her shell, we get to see her blossom and bloom over the course of this book, she really comes into her own. We also get more from the rest of the Slater's, these characters provide lots of laugh out loud moments, especially Alec. There's some twists and turns that you won't see coming that will leave you on the edge of your seat, there are some secrets revealed that will leave you breathless and with a lump in your throat.
This is another amazing read from this author, Damien is well worth the wait, if you have never read this series do yourself a favour and one click it today. 5 Stars!


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Bexhill eateries take Chestnut Tree Challenge
West Station staff members Susie Johnson, Vicky Stallard, Ellie Bossom SUS-150911-140104001
Published: 12:00 Sunday 15 November 2015
Three Bexhill businesses have put their Hands Up! to help reach more children with life-shortening conditions in East Sussex by taking part in the Chestnut Tree House Restaurant Challenge.
Coffee in Style, Terminus Road, the Wheatsheaf Inn, Barnhorn Road and the West Station, Terminus Road, are taking part in the challenge throughout November. The local eateries are offering a warm welcome, delicious food and fantastic service with each diner being offered an optional £1 donation to Chestnut Tree House children's hospice added to their bill. These small donations will help raise vital funds for the charity which is based in Arundel, West Sussex.
Vicky Stallard, staff member at the West Station said the reasons for taking part in the challenge are simple."To help raise awareness and it's a cause very close to my heart, having lost family members myself to illnesses."
Charlie Weeks, Community Fundraiser for Chestnut Tree House East Sussex says the hospice currently cares for 55 children in East Sussex, both in their homes and at the hospice itself, adding: "But we know there are more who need our help. At Chestnut Tree House our goal is to provide the best quality of life for children, young people and their families, and to offer a total package of practical, social and spiritual support throughout each child's life, however short it may be.
"I would like to say a massive thank you to each of the businesses for putting their 'Hands Up' to help, we really appreciate everything they are doing."
For more information about Chestnut Tree's Restaurant Challenge and for more ideas on how to help the hospice visit the website at: www.chestnut-tree-house.org.uk.
Chestnut Tree House provides specialist palliative care services to 300 children and young people aged 0-19 years with life-shortening conditions in East Sussex, West Sussex and South East Hampshire. The services offered include assessment, advice and information for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions, emergency care, and end of life care.
Hastings Jack in the Green organiser speaks about next week's protest at Parliament


Ryan Medley '17: Located in downtown Romeo is Kehoe Orthodontics. Countless beautiful smiles walk out of their doors every day. At the head of all this is Dr. Kehoe. Kehoe has a strong academic past, earning an undergraduate from Oakland University then heading to Ann Arbor to attend University of Michigan's dentistry school. After graduating from the prestigious Michigan University, Kehoe packed his things and headed over to Philadelphia where he graduated from Temple University's school of orthodontics. It took Kehoe 11 years to complete his schooling and he doesn't regret a thing.
"It is so rewarding to see the beautiful people walk out with a great smile" said Kehoe.
Kehoe has a staff of eight members that help him out and three are located at the front desk.
"My teeth were really really messed up and crooked and I had to get a lot of teeth pulled to make room in my mouth, but in the end it was so worth it cause I have a beautiful smile," Chloe Alveron said.
Chloe is one of many at Romeo that inherited their breathtaking smile from Kehoe. Roaming the halls of many high schools around Romeo, you will find perfect straight teeth everywhere. Kehoe explained orthodontics as a pleasant experience.
"I started at Kehoe in third grade and by 7th grade I had a straight smile. Thanks to Dr. Kehoe I can confidently smile," Morgan Mueller said.
Kehoe is very thankful to be located in downtown Romeo and looks back to his days as a cub scout when he came to Romeo and visited the apple orchards. To build such a business as Dr. Kehoe's it didn't just happen overnight. As a 13 year old he found Orthodontics fascinating and luckily got to work for his Orthodontist. At such a young age he had his heart set on opening his own practice. Now today he is ultra successful, running a great practice along with the help of his wonderful staff. Anyone you talk to would be happy with their amazing smile from Dr. Kehoe. If you're not satisfied with your smile, it's never too late to go to Kehoe Orthodontics, and it is never too late to look beautiful.
Morgan Mueller '18 & Megan Bieganski '18 – With warm weather approaching, thoughts of spring break and prom dresses dance in our heads. For girls, the preparation for these events include glowing skin and perfectly pampered hair and nails. Although schedules are busy and budgets are tight, there is a local, and cost effective solution to this problem, Salon Michele.
Salon Michele is located in Frontier Town. Michele opened her doors in the spring of 2011.
"I chose this location because I've lived in Romeo forever, I love the quaint feeling of Frontier Town, and I got a good deal on the space," Michele Billock said.
With having two daughters of her own, Billock understands the pricey times in Spring and Summer due to Spring Break, Prom, and Weddings. Billock is offering deals on tanning and nails to get you ready for these events.
Check out Salon Michele located at 67300 Suite A of Frontier Town, or call and book an appointment (586-246-0235) to suit your Spring fever!


They sell some video DVDs that are hyped as "unedited footage of WWII". In fact, all these products appear to be collections of public domain government documentaries or newsreels of the WWII era, which means the footage was thoroughly scrutinized and edited. The usual game of companies that repackaged public domain films is to put the same film on several different products.
Most companies are at least honest enough to say which films are on the products, so you know when you are buying the same film twice. Howver, I noticed that estore doesn't list the films that are on products like "A Century Of War". I decided to play the game of trying to get "the government" to tell me what films were on it. I called "customer service". (The directions on the site are wrong. Forget the part about pressing 8 and dialing an extension.) I got an employee who was at the store and he did offer to read me the titles until he realized that there 25 DVDs and several films on each. I spoke to the manger next. She didn't know how I could get a written or electronic list of the films. She gave me a number of the person in charge of the website. I called her, got an answering machine and left a message, which included the fact that the directions about the customer service extension on her website are wrong. Never got a reply. I emailed customer service twice and got no reply.
I was doing this more or less as an idle pastime, so I found it entertaining to have my expectations of "customer service" fulfilled. I assume third rate customer service is cheaper than the real thing. I'm glad to see my tax dollars at work.
Does the satisfaction of the customer have ANY affect on the security of the job or success of the product?
There is absolutely no motivation for trying to satisfy a customer when no matter how upset or dissatisfied they are it will have no bearing on if the agency or company (in this instance, government) is successful.
so lemme get this straight. it seems reasonable to have a call center employee read the contents of 24 DVDs to you over the phone? and if they don't, it's a government plot to...make bad documentaries?
if you have such a penchant for violence that can be relived over and over again on your DVD player just go buy the clockwork orange DVD. it's well reviewed and the narration is better.
That's kind of what I was thinking.... You're expecting very, very good customer service - the kind of service that is virtually unheard of (government or otherwise).
I'd rather "The Government" not spend ANY time reading DVD's to people on the "phone".
In all likelihood, this isn't a "government" employee at all. This kind of thing is usually handled by vendors much the way college "bookstores" are run by Barns and Noble.
Can you get "Amazon" to read DVD labels to you? Likely not.
Your "government" run public library can likely get these or something similar for you... for "free". There's your tax dollars at "work".
It seems unreasonable to have an employee read me hundreds of titles over the phone. I didn't want him to.
It seems reasonable to have some way to view the list of titles online. It's semi-reasonable to have a way to order a printed list of the titles.
I suppose I'll have to file a Freedom Of Information request.
It would be interesting to find a library that could get me "something like" "A Century Of War", but I haven't been able to find out exactly what "A Century of War" is like.
No, the titles aren't listed on the Amazon site. That was where I first encountered the product.
If the fact that I'm dealing with a "contractor" hired by the government frees the government of blame, then I think all legislators should hire contractors to do their jobs. It would calm the population.